Mr Benjamin later removed the tweet and apologised, saying: “I’m sorry I offended with a private message that I published by mistake. I feel great affection for my Argentine friends and respect for their national side.”

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “Our ambassador to Chile appears to have inadvertently caused some controversy in a tweet. He has deleted it.” Mr Benjamin, 49, was brought up in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire, and attended Slough Grammar School before reading German and Swedish at the University of Surrey.

Chile is his first ambassadorial post. Mr Benjamin began his diplomatic career in 1986 as a junior official in Pakistan, and has also been posted to Indonesia, Turkey, Washington and New York.